Thursday, March 02, 2017

NUW fights to win big at Repco

Workers at Repco Ingleburn have been celebrating a big win, negotiated by NUW NSW organisers.

About 80 workers have received a three per cent wage rise, back-pay and a rostered day off.

Union organisers decided to call Repco sites around the country to investigate any discrepancies in hourly rates, in a bid to achieve wage parity.They found that Repco Ingleburn was far behind the wage rates of other sights, so challenged the company for an increase with back-pay.

The win took nearly seven months to achieve the win, with the negotiations coming close to industrial action.

“It was a long drawn out negotiation, with a lot of issues on the table,” said NUW Organiser Mark Cochrane.

Organisers managed to secure three per cent wage increase and back pay on all allowances and penalties back to the expiry of the old agreement.

Mr Cochrane said the win was due to the workers ability to stand firm together.“The members stuck together and remained solid through the whole negotiation process,” he said.Another win was the growing union involvement of workers at the Repco site, and the strong display of solidarity.“The membership grew during negotiations we now have about 90 per cent plus membership at the site,” said Mr Cochrane.